Florida Minimum Wage 2026: $15.00 an Hour, $11.98 Tipped

§1Short answer

Florida employers have owed at least $15.00 an hour for all hours worked in the state since September 30, 2026. FloridaCommerce, the state agency that publishes the rate, says the $15.00 figure is effective from September 30, 2026, to December 31, 2027 (FloridaCommerce: Florida Minimum Wage). That makes 2026 the final step of a five-year phase-in that Florida voters approved on November 3, 2020.

For tipped employees, the state requires a direct wage of $11.98 an hour as of September 30, 2026. The agency calculates it as the minimum wage ($15.00) minus the 2003 FLSA tip credit ($3.02) (2026 minimum wage announcement). Tips have to make up the rest, and the employer is on the hook if they do not.

Two dates in 2026 therefore matter for payroll. Work performed through September 29, 2026, was covered by the old $14.00 rate. Work performed from September 30 onward needs the new $15.00 rate, so a pay period that straddles the change date needs two rates.

§2How Florida got to $15: the 2021 to 2026 schedule

The schedule comes straight from the state constitution. Amendment 2 of 2020 rewrote Article X, Section 24 so that the minimum wage rose to $10.00 per hour on September 30, 2021, and then increased by $1.00 every September 30 until it reached $15.00 on September 30, 2026 (Florida Division of Elections: 2020 constitutional amendments, PDF).

The table applies the amendment's $1.00 steps and the fixed $3.02 credit. The 2025 and 2026 tipped figures match what FloridaCommerce printed: $10.98 as of September 30, 2025 (2025 minimum wage announcement, PDF) and $11.98 as of September 30, 2026.

One detail surprises people who have been watching the yearly increases: the tip credit itself has not moved. Because Florida ties it to the federal credit as it stood in 2003, every $1.00 raise in the minimum wage has passed straight through to the tipped direct wage.

§3Tipped employees: what $11.98 does and does not allow

The $11.98 rate is a floor for the cash wage, not a lower minimum wage. The state announcement says employers of tipped employees who meet the FLSA eligibility requirements for the tip credit may credit tips up to the 2003 FLSA amount, but must pay tipped employees a direct wage (2026 announcement). The employee still has to end up with at least $15.00 an hour once tips are counted.

Florida borrows the federal definitions, so the federal tip credit rules decide who qualifies. Under the FLSA, a tipped employee is one who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips, and only tips the employee actually receives count (DOL Fact Sheet #15). If cash wages plus tips fall short of the minimum in a workweek, the employer must make up the difference on the regular payday.

The Department of Labor also requires notice before any credit is taken. The employer has to tell tipped employees the cash wage being paid, the tip credit amount claimed, that the credit cannot exceed tips actually received, that tips belong to the employee except for a valid tip pool, and that the credit will not apply unless the employee was told about these provisions. An employer that skips that notice cannot take the credit at all, which means owing the full $15.00.

Here is the weekly arithmetic for a server who works 30 hours. The employer pays at least 30 x $11.98, or $359.40, in cash wages. To use the full credit, the server's tips for the week must reach at least 30 x $3.02, or $90.60. If tips that week came to only $60.00, the employer owes another $30.60, so that cash wages plus tips still equal 30 x $15.00, or $450.00.

Overtime is where tipped payroll often goes wrong. The DOL fact sheet says overtime must be calculated from the full minimum wage, not the lower cash wage, and that an employer may not take a larger tip credit for an overtime hour than for a straight-time hour. In Florida that means 1.5 x $15.00 = $22.50 per overtime hour, less the same $3.02 credit, for a minimum cash wage of $19.48 per overtime hour.

§4What the September 2026 increase costs an employer

The cost of the final step is easy to estimate. For one full-time employee at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks (2,080 hours), the move from $14.00 to $15.00 adds $2,080 in annual base pay, from $29,120 to $31,200. For a tipped employee on the direct wage, the cash wage rises by the same $1.00 an hour, from $10.98 to $11.98.

Those figures cover base pay only. Payroll taxes calculated on wages rise with them, and many employers also lift pay for staff who earned a little above the old minimum so that a shift lead does not end up earning the same as a new hire. Run the numbers for every Florida role paid within a dollar or two of $15.00, not just for staff paid exactly the minimum.

Non-exempt salaried workers need a separate check. The constitution requires the minimum wage for all hours worked in Florida, so a non-exempt salary that falls below $15.00 an hour once you divide it by the hours actually worked in a week creates the same exposure as an hourly rate set too low. A worker paid $560 for a 40-hour week, for example, earns $14.00 an hour and needs a raise to at least $600.

§5After 2027: back to annual inflation adjustments

The fixed $1.00 steps are finished. The 2026 poster says that, resuming in September 2027, the minimum wage will be adjusted annually for inflation and will take effect on the following January 1 (2026-2027 Florida minimum wage poster, PDF). Combined with the stated end date of December 31, 2027, the first inflation-adjusted rate applies from January 1, 2028.

The constitution describes the method. Each September 30, the state calculates an adjusted rate by increasing the current minimum wage by the rate of inflation during the twelve months before September 1, using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) or a successor index from the U.S. Department of Labor. The adjusted rate is published and takes effect the following January 1 (Amendment 2 text).

Florida Statutes section 448.110 sets the publication deadline: the Department of Commerce and the Department of Revenue must post the adjusted rate and its effective date on their websites by October 15 of each year (Florida Statutes 448.110). October 15 to January 1 is 78 days, so payroll teams get roughly 11 weeks between the latest possible announcement and the new rate.

§6Who the Florida minimum wage covers

Coverage follows the federal law closely. The state announcement says the definitions of employer, employee and wage for state purposes are the same as those under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and its regulations (2026 announcement). Section 448.110 adds that only individuals entitled to receive the federal minimum wage under the FLSA are eligible for the state minimum wage (Florida Statutes 448.110).

In practice that means FLSA exemptions carry over. A worker the FLSA excludes from its minimum wage is also outside the state rate, while any worker the FLSA covers gets the higher Florida figure. The federal minimum is $7.25, and the DOL says that when state law differs from the FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

The rate is also tied to place of work. The state constitution says employers shall pay employees no less than the minimum wage for all hours worked in Florida, so the location where the work happens decides which rate applies.

§7Posters, retaliation and enforcement

Florida Statutes section 448.109 requires employers who must pay the Florida minimum wage to post a minimum wage notice in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment where those employees work. FloridaCommerce publishes the notice in English, Spanish and Creole, and federal law separately requires the FLSA poster (2026 announcement).

The poster also summarizes employee rights. An employer may not retaliate against an employee for exercising the right to receive the minimum wage. Those protected rights include filing a complaint about alleged noncompliance, telling any person about it, and informing others of their rights and helping them assert them (2026-2027 poster).

Enforcement has two tracks. An employee who has not received the lawful minimum wage after notifying the employer and giving it 15 days to resolve the claim may sue to recover back wages plus damages and attorney's fees. An employer found liable for intentionally violating the minimum wage is subject to a fine of $1,000 per violation, payable to the state, and the Attorney General may bring a civil action to enforce the law.

§8FAQ

What is the lowest legal hourly pay in Florida right now?
It is $15.00 an hour. That rate took effect at the end of September 2026, and FloridaCommerce lists it as running until the end of 2027.

What is the tipped minimum wage in Florida?
Qualifying employers pay $11.98 an hour in cash wages, because the state tip credit is $3.02. If tips leave someone short of $15.00 an hour, the employer covers the gap.

Will the state pay floor rise in 2027?
No. The rate stays at $15.00 for all of 2027. Inflation indexing starts again with a new figure dated 1 January 2028.

Was $14 the Florida rate in 2026?
Only for the first nine months. The $14.00 rate took effect in late September 2025, and ended the day before the $15.00 rate began in late September 2026.

Does Florida copy the U.S. tip credit?
Partly. Florida borrows FLSA definitions for who can take a tip credit, but its credit is frozen at $3.02, the 2003 federal figure, compared with $5.12 at the national level today.